1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to presentation systems. Specifically, the present invention concerns presentation systems that enable audience members to provide feedback to a presenter.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional presentation, information flows primarily from a presenter to audience members. Of course, audience members sometimes convey information to the presenter by applauding or by raising their hands in response to a query from the presenter. The audience members may also provide the presenter with formal or informal comments after the conclusion of the presentation. Nevertheless, conventional presentation systems fail to allow significant feedback from audience members, and therefore do not provide adequate information to a presenter regarding the impact of a presentation upon audience members.
Systems have recently been developed to gather more useful information from audience members. Often applied to political speeches, these systems operate by asking audience members to express their reactions to portions of a speech. The reactions may include approval, neutrality and disapproval, and may be expressed either manually or with an electronic device providing an interface for expressing such reactions. The reactions of the audience members are recorded and compiled to produce aggregated data. Political parties and/or analysts use the data to gauge the effectiveness of different aspects of a speech, such as content, form, style, delivery, etc. Although these recently-developed systems may provide more detailed information than previously available, the necessary delay in receiving the information is often unacceptable. Moreover, these systems do not provide for any direct communication between an audience member and a presenter.
In view of the foregoing, what is needed is a presentation system which provides improved communication between a presenter and audience members and which provides the communication in a cost-effective, simple and timely manner.
The present invention addresses the foregoing by providing an alternative channel for efficient communication between a presenter and audience members during a presentation. In one aspect, the invention includes presentation of a presentation to a plurality of audience members, and electronic receipt of an evaluation of the presentation during the presentation. By virtue of this aspect, a presenter may be easily provided with adequate feedback, while the presentation is being presented, based on which a presentation may be tailored. The resulting presentation may therefore be more appealing to an audience member and more successful for the presenter.
In another aspect, the present invention includes reception of a presentation from a presenter, and electronic transmission of an evaluation of the presentation to the presenter during the reception of the presentation. These features allow an audience member to efficiently provide information to a presenter during a presentation, thereby increasing the efficiency of the presentation.
In yet another aspect, the invention includes presentation of a presentation to a plurality of audience members, and electronic transmission of data to less than all of the plurality of audience members during the presentation. This aspect also increases efficiency of a presentation by allowing a presenter to transmit, during a presentation, information to select audience members.
With these and other advantages and features that will become hereafter apparent, a more complete understanding of the nature of the invention can be obtained by referring to the following detailed description and to the drawings appended hereto.